The Daily Alaska empire Newspaper, October 24, 1939, Page 1

THE DAILY ALASKA EMPIRE “ALL THE NEWS ALL THE TIME” VOL. LIV., NO. 8241. JUNEAU, ALASKA, TUESDAY, O(:TOBER 24, 1939. MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS PRICE TEN CENTS AMERICAN SHIP SEIZED BY NAZIS The Finger of Death GERMANYTO of Death “Foreign Minister Von Rib- bentrop Says Conflict Is Being Forced DANZIG, Oct. 24. — Chancellor Adolf Hitler's Foreign Minister von Ribbentrop told the world today that Germany now determined to conduct a against Great Britain and her s to the bitter finish and until the security of the German Reich in Germany is as- sured for all time. Von Ribbentrop ct war with the we “completel; seless Great Britain, espec berlain Government, having this war. Von Ribbentrop denied the charge that Germany has broken word and reiterated that the Hitler govern- ment could have come to an under- standing regarding Poland if it had not been for the London govern- ment. Von Ribbentrop made a 45-min- ute radio address to veterans of the war and declared “in the truest sense of the word, this war is forced upon Germar ACTION ON is war racterized the orn powers as but held that lly the Cham- insisted on DEBATE ON NEUTRALITY IS CURBED Senators GiVefi Short Time for Debate-Vote May Be Taken Soon WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 The Senate has agreed unanimously to | curtail debate in an effort to reach |a final vote on the Administration’s | neutrality 3omewhere in Poland, a German inhabitant of the Nazi-ponquered _repub- ic points an accusing finger at a captured Pole, charging him with the nurder of his brother. The picture was released by the German propa- randa burean. Hundreds in Poland have been executed for “terrorism agninst German nationals.” ]UDGE J AMES PIONEER ON LAST TRAIL WICKERSHAM pompess | legislation by this week= nd te agreed on the propos- tic Leader Barkley to | general discus- | limit each Se sion on the le for repeal of the 45 minutes. In addition each Senator is per- mitted to speak a total of 45 min- utes on each amendment With this agreement out of the way, Senator Key Pittman obtained unanimous consent for immediate consideration of the Committee amendments to the legislation thus automatically ending more than three weeks of general debate. ation providing START ON AMENDMEN' WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 Senate, working under the ment of curtailing deb: amended the neutrality bill to ex- empt ordinary inland commerce with Canada from “title and carry” restrictions. The amendment to the measure agree- rms embargo to | The | has | ¥ 'Finland’s Ski-Shod Troops | | | | | | | { | i B u. ive demands on once-Russian Fi ! any Soviet aggression by calling its little army nish infantry company once St. Petersburg, Russia’s second largest city. ‘While 8. Ambassador Laurence Readyto Steinhardt in Moscow urged Sovi \land, Europe's nervous northern land prepared to resist by force to full strength. equipped with skis taking to the Soviet drontier, only 25 miles from Le iet Russia to refrain from making a Fin- ingrad, Pictured above i Resist Gr(:b SE A R was offered by Senator Prentiss M. TROUBLED. SOULS WRITE DELEGATION FROM AIDER - CAPTURES 1 U. §. VESSEL City of Flint Taken fo Neu- tral Port, Then Sail- ed fo Russia GERMAN PRIZE CREW ALSO PLACED ABOARD Diplomatic Action Working Fast to Gain All Particulars WASHINGTON, Oct. 24, — The United States Maritime Commission has received a report that the Am- erican steamship City of Flint, 4,- 963 tons, owned by the commission and leased to the United States Lines, has been seized by a German raider, somewhere on the Atlantic Ocean, taken to Tromso, Norway, and then sailed from there again with a German crew and flying the German flag. The Tass, Soviet News Agency, has reported to Moscow that a ves- sel, similarly manned and marked, arrived at Kola Bay, near Mur- mansk, Russia. This is believed to be the steamer City of Flint. The Russians said the cargo con- Brown of Michigan. sisted of leather, wax, tractors, fruit WEST FRONT IS RESUMED German Forces Make At- tacks on French Hold- ing Nazi Villages PARIS, Oct. 24—French military| commentators report that three German assaults on a German vil- lage held by the French outposts in Warndt Forest have been re- pulsed. The reports coincide with ru- mors of increasing German pres- sure on the French lines. o R i NM AGE’ HOUR {aska in 1900. He lived a year at | Eagle, a year at Nome, two years lat Valdez and 16 at Fairbanks. Since 1921 he had been a Juneau resident, maintaining an office in the Valentine Building and appear- ing bright and early almost every mornipg, even though in retire- ment. Judge Wickersham on June 6, 1900, at the age of 43 was appointed Judge of the District Court in the Third Alaska Precinct, as it was then known. At an age when most men were beginning to think about isettling down for their declining years, Jim Wicksham was just be- ginning a public career which was REINS TAKEN BY NEW MAN Army Colonel Now Admin- istrator-Change Today in Standards WASHINGTON, Oct. 24—Colo- nel Philip Fleming, 52-year-old Army engineer, today took over ad- ministration of the wage and hour law on the day a statutory change in the law’s standards became ef- fective. Beginning today the minimum wage rate under the law is 30 cents per hour instead of 25 cents and the maximum work week un- less time and a half for overtime js paid becomes 42 hours instead of 44. Officials estimated the changes would mean a pay increase for 692,- 000 workers and a shortening of the work week or overtime bene- fits for 2,308,000. Fleming is to be head of the depgrtment in fact but not in title. He was selected by the Presi- flent to succeed Administrator El- mer Andrews, resigned. Because of Federal statutes which prevent Army officers on active duty from taking appointive or elective Gov- ernment positions, Fleming will not hold the title of Wage and Hour Administrator unless Con- gress makes a special provision in his case. The title of Acting Ad- ministrator will be held by Harold D. Jacobs, Andrews’ deputy. - The planet Jupiter is covered by a layer of ice 16,000 miles thick. {setting up the system of Govern- 'DEAD AT 82§ S Former Del;j;fe Passes Away at Hospital Early Today James Wickersham, 82, to Congress for 14 years of the grand old men of history, died early this at St. Ann's Hospital. He had suffered a stroke last Saturday. The resulting illness claimed his life at 4:30 o'clock this morning. As Delegate from 1909 to 1921 and from 1931 to 1933, Judge W ersham’s principal achievement was the Alaska Act, known as the Wickersham Act, giving a measure of home rule to the Territory and Judge | Delegate |and one Alaska’s morning ment which still prevails. 39 Years Alaska Judge Wickersham came to Al- / (5 JUDGE JAMES WICKERSHAM who passed away this morning. more stormy controversies than any other figure who has grown up with Alaska. Sent to Alaska In the State of Washington they said jokingly that Senator Addison G. Foster, a political crony, sent Wickersham to Alaska to get him out of Washington politics, and if he did he tossed a whole hornet’s nest into the midst of the young northern Territory. He was fated in the North to share in the clean- up of Nome which followed the upsetting of a famous mining conspiracvy which served the fur- ther purpose of providing the ma- - - Interference (hargeMade ° Against U.S. 3 BRITISH . FREIGHTERS TORPEDOED {Vessels Are Sent Down Within Short Distance of Gibralfar GIBRALTAR, Oct. | -3 | | Dispaichfim Shangha Sent fo Moscow Makes Accusation | MOSCOW, Oct. 24. — A special | dispatch from Shanghai to the So- viet Government's newspaper Iz- | vestia accused the United States of | trying to block improvement in thef Soviet Russian-Japanese relations, | quoting “responsible quarters.” | The dispatch said “agents of | Washington are active” trying to| put pressure on the Japanese gov- |ernment because of Japan's de-| pendence on imports from the Unit- | | |ed States. et e 24 Three of Gibraltar. }Menin Ridge, 2400 tons; Tafna, 4, 400 tons, and Ledbury, 3,500 tons It is believed the majority |\ the crews escaped in lifeboats. - e of | ltwo The freighters sent down are the | members of the present - CONGRESSMEN CONCERNING | REPEAI. OF ARMS EMBARGO Leave Mosc;\; 'Tonight for By PRESTON GROVER WASHINGTON, Oct. 24.—The ex- cited flood of mail protesting repeal | arms embargo has shifted of much of the tension from the Sen- ate to the House where public re- action traditionally causes more po- litical heartburns. Since two-thirds is largely immune at any one time to immediate political pre: sure, there is a greater zone of 1 sistance to mail bombardments such as has grown surprisingly out American “Crisis.” it fs different. enmasse every They are coming up each in his own bali- discount any reports the of the Senate In the Members years year Don’t House come up next wick British freighters have been sunk | as to how responsive they are to |about 80 miles west of the ROCK mail atta 5. , In the Senate, two-thirds of the can risk being “states- men” even to the extent of voting against a flood of protests of their constituents. Many things may ar an own irate constituency before their se Lo rescue these Senators from, terial for Rex Beach’s novel, “The| Spoilers.” He was in the Fairbanks district during the early fight of the Guggenheim interests for an Alaska foothold. Some of the his- tory of that early fight also was to carry him far and high. He was|iangated into novel form in| a Judge until December 31, 1907. | Begch's “Iron Trail” James Wickersham was born at 5 | | Patoca, Marion County, Illinois,on Party By Himself | August 24, 1857. His father was 1 Alexander Wickersham, a Kentuck-| jan, and his mother Deborah Bell| of Rochester, Illinois. Career Outside He was admitted to the bar in| Wickersham rode into Congress and stayed there on his anti-Gug-| genheim issue. Originally a Repub- lican, he became a “Progressive,” but more than anything else he was a whole party by himself in Alaska 1880, became a Probate Judge in|for a decade or more. George Grigs- Pierce County, Washington, in 1884 by, the Democratic nominee, once and City Attorney of Tacoma and |Was District Attorney at Nome and a member of the Washington Leg-|on the face of 1918 returns was el- islature in 1898. ected as Delegate, but Wickersham | Judge Wickersham belonged to the | contested and won the seat. b Sons of the American Revolution,| While he spent long months in| the American Anthropological As-| Washington awaiting the outcome | sociation, the Asiatic Society of Jap- | of his contest, Wickersham worked | an, the Masonic Lodge, the Elks, |on his Alaska history, which he sub- | Eagles, Moose and the Pioneers of | sequently retired to Juneau to fin-| Alaska. | ish. | His “Bibliography of Alaskan| Among the important bills he in- | Literature, 1724-1934” won him|troduced and succeeded in having| lasting fame as an author and |Passed in Congress were those in-| scholar. His personal library, which | corporating the City of Fairbanks; | has been kept intact in Juneau,|establishing the Territorial Legis- is admitted to be the finest Alaska |lature; authorizing the location and library anywhere. | constrution of a Federal Govern-| Besides the widow, Judge Wick-|ment Railroad from Seward to Faxr-‘ ersham is survived by a son, Lieut.- Panks; providing for the granting by | Commander Darrell P. Wickersham | the Federal Government of four sec- | of San Francisco. | tions of land as a site for the Agri- Pioneer, lawyer, jurist, author,;'c“l‘““l Catlege and School <?r Mines, congressman and crusader, Wick-|n0W the University of Alaska, and |ersham has been in the center of| (Continued on Paz’e Two) OUT ON BAIL NEW YORK, Oct. 24.—Commun- ist leader Earl Browder is free to- day on $7500 bail. Browder was arrested on charges of making false statements when obtaining pass- ports. Bail was furnished by Mrs. H. C. Huntington of New York. Mrs. Huntington and Browder's lawyer accompanied him to the of- fice of the Clerk of the Federal Court to post the bail. Browder was placed under arrest yesterday. He said he had passed a comfortable night at the House of Detention. election periods come around, or four years hence. But in House members must come to face with their neighbors explain their acts almost as as they perform them. | two { the [ face |and soon ‘Ador’s Daughter ' To Be Disciplined | THE MAIL OR A POLI | 1t is true that polls by the usual | | agencies point to a disposition of LOS ANGELES, Oct. 24—June amorica to favor the Allies by the | Atwell, eighteen, daughter of Film|repeq) of the arms embargo. But | Comedian Roy Atwell, was ordered | he congressional mail runs so over- by juvenile officials today to a pri- whelmingly in the opposite direction | vate broading home in Pasadena for that members of the House are truly | “disciplinary purposes.” | worried about what to do. If thou- She was accused of breaking into| sands of their constituents, including a cafe with two boys the night of | grange members, Legionnaires, lit- | September 12 and stealing two cases | erayy clubs and just plain heckled of beer and a picnic hamper Yankees, write in to protest the n»-i 70 TONS OF POLISH GOLD 'ESCAPES' FROM WARSAW: HAS REACHED PARIS SAFELY PARIS, Oct. 24.—Seventy tons of Polish gold, removed from Warsaw on the opening days of | the war, arrived here safely to- day after a hazardous journey by auto truck, train and ship of over 6,000 miles. Credit for the “escape” of the gold is given former Polish Fi- peal, they have got to think a long | ime before they convince them-| es whether the malil or public re- | {action polls are right | We have run into several who | remember or have read about the| League of Nations fight. Public | sentiment was overwhelmingly for | | the league. It sounded like peace,| President Wilson was for it, and even if he hadn’'t kept us out of | war, his word was good. | | Yet within a half-dozen months sentiment ‘had changed consider- ably. The two or three newspapers that had stood out from the throng and opposed Wilson were joined by hundreds more.” The League went down. Its critics contended that the following election, in which the Democrats went down to defeat with the League as an | nance Minister Col. Matuszew- ski who organized the trucks , and convoy. ‘The irucks are | ordinary trucks since the Col- | onel felt armored vehicles would | arouse too much suspi | The seventy tons worth about $65856,000 at the pres- ent United States price, (Continued on fiu ‘Three) | embezzlement above " FINLAND IS GIVEN RUSSIAN DEMANDS Helsinki fo Make Report HELSINKI, rinland, Oct. 24. — The Finnish delegation negotiating |in Russia will leave Moscow to- night and return to Helsinki, bringing the new written proposals of the Kremlin. The Finnish Government spokes- man said the delegation, which arrived in Moscow yesterday “thought it best to return here and consult the governmen{ on the new Russian proposals.” e INDICTED MAN HIDES IN HOME FOR TEN YEARS MORRISTOWN, N. J, Oct. 24— For ten long years Edward A. Walsh, lawyer of near-by Boonton, secluded himsclf on the second floor of his modest home, rarely leaving his bed- room and never going outside the house. And while he was hiding police combed the East for him on indict- ments accusing him of the theft of $8,434, Walsh, now fifty-two, ended his voluntary imprisonment to drive ten miles from his home to the Morris County quarter sessions here. He walked into the courthouse, sur- rendered to Prosecutor William Hegarty, and a few minutes later pleaded guilty before County Judge Albert H. Holland to two counts of He was then re- manded to the county jail for sen- tence, “It just got on my nerves and I couldn't stand being in the house any longer,” Walsh told his attoi ney, Frank C. Scerbo of Morris- town, Scerbo told Judge Holland that Walsh, who was indicted Octo- ber, 1929, was “only a shell of the man he used to be” from his self- imposed imprisonment. Walsh was accused in the indict- ments of embezzling $3433 from Charles D. Donnelly of Boonton, -+ GOING TO WYOMING Mrs, Vera Murray passed through here on the Alaska bound for Kem- merer, Wyoming, where she is going to attend her daughter who is ill. M Murray was for a short time sting in special work at the Uni- versity of Alaska. - - Clouds are rarely observed at heights of more than six miles the earth’s surface. and grains, destined for England. Presumably the Germans declared the cargo contraband under the in- ternational law which allows such seizure, if the contraband consti- tutes 51 per cent of the cargo. The City of Flint participated dur- ing the first day of the war in the rescue of Athenia survivors. “LEGAL, LAWFUL VOYAGE" WASHINGTON, Oct. 24, — The ‘White House takes the view that the American steamer City of Flint was “on a perfectly legal and lawful voyage under existing laws" when she was seized by Germany and taken to a neutral port. In commenting on the legality of the vessel's voyage, Stephen Early, Presidential press secretary, said he was speaking only of the American law and did not mean Germany had no right to seize the ship. Asked whether it was determined whether Germany under interna- tional law could take a vessel in custody and sail her to a neutral port, Early said the Department of State is looking into all of those phases. The White House, like some Leg~ islators, apparently view the inei- dent as strengthening the argument for amending the present neutrality law. MAY DEMAND RELEASE WASHINGTON, Oct. 24, — The American Government is expected to demand that Russia release the City of Flint. This request is based on the ground that Germany, in the ab- sence of extraordinary circum- stances, had no right to send the vessel to a neutral port regardless of any contraband she might have carried. RUSSIA WILL ACT MOSCOW, Oct. 24.—Russia has told the United States that full in- formation will be furnished as soon as available concerning the City of Flint, captured by a German sea raider and sent to Murmansk. United States Ambassador Laur- ence Steinhardt in an interview with Vladimir Potempking, Vice- Commissar of Foreign Affairs, asked for details of the ship’s capture and welfare of the crew of 42, The interview is described as be- ing most cordial and the Vice-Com-~ missar promised information as soon as obtainable from the foreign con- sulate at Murmansk, The American authorities had to make inquiries through the regular channels here. MORE INFORMATION OSLO, Ot. 24—The capture of the American steamer City of Flint and the sinking of the British freighter Stonegate gives evidence that at least two fast and powerful German warship raiders are rang- ing outside of Great Britain's nav- al blockade. (Continued on l;nge ‘Three)